As we are one in Christ, and can never be at war…
4 August will also mark a significant centenary in the history of peace
While 4 August will be the centenary of the outbreak of first world war, it is less known that it is also a significant centenary in the history of peace.
On 4 August 1914, on the platform of Cologne station, Henry Hodgkin, a British Quaker, and Friedrich Sigmund-Schulze, a German Lutheran pastor, made a solemn farewell handshake, declaring ‘We are one in Christ and can never be at war’.
Hodgkin and Schulze had been participants in a Christian pacifist conference held at Constance, on the German-Swiss border, as part of the commemorations of the fifth centenary of the Council of Constance.
By 3 August it was clear that anyone who wanted to get home without difficulty should leave immediately, so the conference was terminated prematurely, without establishing the ‘Movement Towards a Christian International’ it had been discussing.
Nevertheless, Hodgkin set up a ‘Fellowship of Reconciliation’ in the UK, which has now become international.
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